Georgia Northern Railway

Until the coming of Diesel, Georgia, more than any other region of the Deep South, was a the stronghold of a feudal barony of short lines which ran in florid and wonderful profusion through its scrub pine to lend character and meaning to travel.

Lucius Beebe & Charles Clegg, The Age of Steam, 1957

In the early 1890s, the Pidcock family chartered a small logging railroad that ran northward out of the small community of Pidcock, Georgia. A few years later, they purchased the nearby Boston & Albany Railroad and combined their assets to form the Georgia Northern Railway. The railroad was operating between Albany, GA and Boston, GA by 1905 then began purchasing other railroads -- the Flint River & North Eastern, the Georgia, Ashburn, Sylvester & Camilla, and the Georgia, Southwestern & Gulf. The Southern Railway took over the Georgia Northern in 1966, but the road maintained a separate corporate identity until 1993.

The Georgia Northern began in the early 1890s as a logging railroad running north from Pidcock, a logging community east of Boston owned by the Pidcock family. At about the same time, a group of area business men organized the Boston and Albany Railroad to build a common carrier line along the route of the logging tracks. Their company soon entered receivership and its assets were sold in 1894 to the Pidcocks, who renamed the line Georgia Northern.

Steve Storey - Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage

Motive Power

Georgia Northern #102

Alco 4-6-0 (1923) / Albany, Ga / Mar 1957 / collection

Georgia Northern #102

builder:ALCO Richmond
arrangement:4-6-0 Ten Wheeler
built:May 1923, Alco #64283
fuel:coal/water
notes:
to Norton Coal Co #102, 1950s
to Richard Jensen, 1965
to Illinois Railway Museum, 1980s
to End O Line Museum, 1993

Georgia Northern #105

Baldwin 2-8-2 (1929) / Moultrie, Ga / Jun 1956 / collection

Georgia Northern #105

builder:Baldwin Locomotive Works
arrangement:2-8-2 Mikado
built:Mar 1929, Baldwin #60736
fuel:_________
notes:
named "W. L. Joiner"
to City of Moultrie GA, 1963

Georgia Northern #107

Alco 4-6-2 (1911) / Moultrie, Ga / Sep 1949 / collection

Georgia Northern #107

builder:ALCO Schenectady
arrangement:4-6-2 Pacific
built:1911
fuel:coal/water
notes:
blt Florida East Coast #88
to Georgia Northern #107, unknown
on display at Albany, Georgia

Albany, Ga / Mar 1957 / collection

Links / Sources

Wikipedia article for the Georgia Northern
Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage article on GANO
Don's Rail Photos - Georgia Short Lines and Industrial Railroads